Posts with the label Singapore
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
29 May 2018
Random Lessons From Singapore
In my final post on the joy that was discovering Singapore, here’s a few random things I learnt/things to expect from the unique city-state:
If you board the front carriage of a metro train, you’ll discover there’s no driver. Just a big glass window where you can look directly out into the tunnel. Bit like being on a (very) tame rollercoaster. Adults and children get equally as excited.
Plugs are the same as the UK, they drive on the same side as the UK but, just to confuse you, they stand on the left of the escalator, not the right.
Jaywalking is illegal but all the locals seem to do it anyway.
Caning is still a thing there; just in case you were tempted to break the law.
It’s not possible to go to Singapore and not get lost in a shopping centre. At least for us anyway.
No one seems to cook at home because it’s so much cheaper to just grab something at the hawker centres. Genuinely, the concept of never sitting on the sofa with a bowl of pasta pesto stressed me out slightly.
You have to eat ice cream fast because, in that heat, it’ll have melted before you’ve even paid.
It’s so CLEAN. Cleanest place I have ever been to, no competition.
There are no mosquitos. I mean, okay, there are mosquitos but there’s a distinct lack of them. I didn’t get bitten at all the entire week, and Alice only got bitten once when we were on one of the islands.
Don’t make eye contact with a wild monkey. Thems the rules apparently.
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| Sunrise from our hotel room |
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| Views from Marina Bay Sands |
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| Southern Ridges |
People tell you that alcohol is ridiculously expensive but, honestly, if you’re used to London prices, you won’t bat an eyelid.
Having a cold in 35c heat is fucking horrendous.
‘Kusu’ means ‘Tortoise island’. Fun fact there for ya.
There are temples everywhere. And they’re all stunningly beautiful.
Aircon very quickly becomes your new best friend.
A merlion is a bit of mascot for Singapore. There are a lot of merlion statues dotted about all over the shop.
You can eat stingray… should you get a fancy.
The metro is insanely cheap. 35p-for-a-journey-level-of-cheap.
Everyone speaking English is no guarantee there won’t still be a language barrier; we definitely still had a few communication issues, particularly when ordering food.
Durians are a type of fruit that are famous for their potent stench – which is why you’ll see signs about them at stations; they’re specifically banned on the metro. Apparently they smell a bit like blue cheese…
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| Kusu island |
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| Sentosa |
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| Standing at the southernmost point of continental Asia |
On Wednesday nights, most bars have free drinks for women. In one place, at the end of the night, they started standing on the bar and pouring drinks on top of people. It was a bit weird.
When it rains, it’s so loud that it kinda sounds like rocks are falling to the floor.
If you have this image that walking the southern ridges will be quiet and tranquil… you’d be wrong. I’d recommend doing it but don’t expect to be alone.
Carrot cake is NOT the same as it is in England. It’s not cake and it’s not sweet. Nor does it have carrot in it. It’s either turnip or radish… we never quite got to the bottom of that one.
The bar at the top of Marina Bay Sands (views aside), Sentosa Island and the hawker centres did not live up to the hype in my opinion. Gardens by the bay, the light shows, the general bay area and Haji Lane 100% did. Little India & Island hopping were beautiful and two of my favourites - and bizarrely not really shouted about. Southern Ridges, Chinatown and grabbing a Singapore Sling worth doing if you have the time.
Other posts on Singapore:
22 May 2018
Singapore Diaries | Light Shows (With a Video)
If you asked me to choose my one favourite thing about Singapore, I’d probably say the light shows.
And not the light shows that took place in our hotel room because why so many goddamn light switches?
I actually came down with a cold and cough whilst we were away and spent a couple of days feeling pretty rough. But on this evening, I’d finally got my hands on some flu capsules and cough syrup and I had a new zest for Singapore.
In the early evening, we headed to Satay by the Bay, a hawker centre in the Gardens by the Bay. I wasn’t a massive fan of the hawker centres, but I did really like Satay by the Bay. It felt a little less manic and a little more airy than others and that made all the difference. Plus it’s in the middle of all the greenery and near the water; a great setting for some dinner.
This is where we fell in love with Roti Prata – a signature dish of Singapore and Malaysia. It’s fried stretched dough, flavoured with ghee (Indian butter). A bit like a combination of a naan bread and a crepe? You can have it sweet or savoury either served with a curry or on its own with different flavours. I actually preferred it plain with an Indian-style salsa dip because it was so tasty, but I tried the cheesy one as well and that was also pretty good.
I also had the best satay chicken I’ve ever tasted here. The peanut sauce was delicious; thick, spicy and creamy and I honestly think I could have eaten just the sauce alone. Who needs the chicken?!
We met Alice’s friend Ruby, who is currently living in Singapore, and spent a couple of hours eating and chatting before heading back into the gardens to catch the Garden Rhapsody Supertree light show for the second time.
The theme that night was ‘Sounds of Asia’ and we sat on the ground surrounded by many doing the same, some flat on their backs, and watched those supertrees glow in time to the music. Personally, that light show would never get old for me. But I wasn’t quite expecting to find something even better.
After the show was finished, we walked under Marina Bay Sands and into the bay area. There were a lot of people hanging about on the promenade just underneath the hotel, looking out across the water. Ruby thought she’d heard of another kind of light show that took place on the water, so we decided to sit on the steps and hang around.
We’d seen laser lights being projected from the top of Marina Bay Sands from a distance a couple of times during our stay so I assumed we were just going to see that in all its glory. Reader, my expectations were so off the mark. Lasers did beam out from the top of the hotel across the water for sure, and then fireworks started going off… and then shit really got going.
This was Spectra and the supertree light show that I loved so much paled in comparison. It was a light and water show; the water was shooting about in every direction and if you stood right on the front, you were guaranteed to get wet because the spray. But the spray was the point; colours and images were projected onto the spray and the result was just spectacular. This was all in time to some banging tunes (as the kids would say), and combined with the fireworks going off at the start – it was all pretty epic.
(We ended up going back on our final night and I can confirm it didn’t get any less epic the second time round.)
This is one of those rare case where the pictures and describing it in the written word doesn’t do it justice at all. I’ve included a video of our trip below which includes a lot of footage of these light shows, so you can see for yourself.
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the bay, checking out the mini carnival that had been set up for Chinese New Year. This was basically more epic lights!
I’m convinced the reason why my overwhelming memories of Singapore are simply colour is because of all these light shows.
Garden Rhapsody takes place at 7:45pm and 8:45pm every evening and Spectra takes place 8pm and 9pm Sunday – Thursday and 8pm, 9pm and 10pm Friday – Saturday.
3 May 2018
Singapore Diaries | Island Hopping
When planning our trip to Singapore (not something we did in a lot of detail as we only booked five weeks in advance), Alice and I were in agreement that we wanted to venture out the city and check out some of the islands dotted about. We ran out of time to do Pulau Ubin but we did tick off Sentosa, St John's, Lazarus and Kusu.
100% honesty: we didn’t really get Sentosa. On paper, it sounded amazing. A cable car ride over the water, 3 big beaches, the southernmost point of continental Asia; yes please, sign me up. But the reality was a bit… tacky?
I like the fact that I’ve been to the southernmost point of Asia – that’s pretty cool. But I’m not sure it was worth traipsing around Sentosa for. It’s all a bit theme park with too many tourists and views of endless cargo ships. Not exactly the picturesque remote island we’d been envisioning (we did eat two ice creams in the space of half an hour though so that’s something). Basically, if you have time to go visit some of the neighbouring islands in Singapore, I wouldn’t bother with Sentosa. Go island-hopping instead.
On our second to last day, we hopped on over to the harbour area, via the metro, and bought tickets for a little island-hopping boat trip. Apart from some minor sea sickness-related nausea, it was a truly swell day.Our first stop was St John's island and we were relieved to get off the boat and immediately see those pristine white beaches we’d been imagining, without any tacky tourist crap. Hallelujah. It was tranquil with clear blue waters and lush vegetation.
St John’s is famous for once housing a quarantine centre for cholera cases detected amongst immigrants in the later 19th century – bit of history there for ya. You know what it’s also famous for? CATS. Yes, my friends, a cat island. I WAS SO HAPPY.
I mean sure, some of them were very mangy but I was still surrounded by purring felines so I wasn’t going to complain. The island is home to approximately 100 stray cats who laze and lounge around in the sun all day as though they own the place. And you know what? It seems they do. They are very used to human contact so we spent a good while sitting with them, stroking them, photographing them… I loved it.
I will admit though, we did get a teensy bit distracted by the wild monkeys. The evening before, we’d walked the southern ridges and there were loads of signs explaining what to do should you encounter a wild monkey. Ngl, we were actually a little disappointed not to see any swinging about above our heads. But this was so much better. We got to watch a family of monkeys – including a baby – play in the trees and run around on the ground just a few feet from us. It felt quite special to see them up close in the wild, just going about their business. Particularly as the baby was so playful.
When we finally pulled our gaze away from them, we took a lazy walk across the connecting walkway to Lazarus island which is home to a gorgeous beach. Naturally, we had to kick off our shoes and get our feet in the water and I was a little annoyed I hadn’t brought my swimsuit because it looked so inviting. We moseyed around the beach, paddled and sat under the shade of the trees reading for a while before taking a gentle (the heat) walk back to St John’s and hopping on the boat to Kusu.
Kusu was absolutely my favourite island of them all. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by the sight of the stunning Chinese temple and we immediately went to have a look around. Inside was a big burst of colours and incense, full of little details and quirks.
Kusu means ‘Tortoise island’ and its name won’t let you down. There’s a tortoise shelter! We also encountered some enormous reptilian creatures that ran through the grass at impressive speeds but we never quite got to the bottom of what exactly they were. Took lots of photos naturally.
Kusu is tiny but also the most peaceful of the islands. The beach is full of pristine white sand, palm tress and perfectly blue water. I was quite happy to spend the rest of the afternoon sat on it with that Singapore skyline stretched out in front of us.
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